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Climbing Weakness Evaluated - Footwork

The revised SNCS Sport Climbing Level 2 syllabus is focused on lead climbing on artificial climbing wall (ACW)environment. This means no more anchor set-up, no more rappelling, no more rope ascending using friction knots: just lead climb, lead belay, topping up as the main course.

Even with a reduced syallabus conducted over two days, there is still hardly time to help participants identify their climbing weakness. I guess it will be good to introduce a couple of common climbing weaknesses in this post starting with the legs.

Heavy legs. The legs are stronger than the arms, hence climbing movement should be initiated from the legs (body shooting upwards). Most beginners tend to pull with their arms and drag their legs up to follow through. Try saying "Push" out loud whenever you engage your leg muscles when climbing, this instruction will create a direct communication to the legs muscle to push upwards.

Silent feet. Noisy footwork are indications that climbers are either not watching their feet while climbing or not confident to place full pressure on the footholds.

Small steps. Arm muscles are need to pull the body if the climber engages in high step moves. Taking two small steps are always better than high-stepping.

In Memory of Chloé Graftiaux

On 21st August, Belgian climber Chloé Graftiaux fell to her death while descending the normal route of the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, after climbing the South Ridge.

Chloé’s sudden passing has been a shocking and painful one. Shocking that her win in the IFSC Boulder WC in Vail and Sheffield was so recent. Painful that for someone who had a whole life of climbing ahead, her passing is too early.

My encounter with Chloe may be few and brief but I remember her for her beautiful, bright smile whenever she topped a boulder.
My condolences to the family of Chloe Graftiaux.

Here's another look at Chloe's podium topping performance at Vail and Sheffield WC and her interview before Munich WC.

IFSC Rules 2010 - 4.6.5

"If the Jury President has ruled that one or more quickdraws shall be clipped from a particular hold or earlier, this information shall be announced to the competitors during the technical briefing in the isolation zone, and the actual hold(s) and the quickdraw(s) shall be clearly marked, preferably with a blue cross, and pointed out during the route observation."

Vienna World Cup Live

The second event of the IFSC Bouldering World Cup goes live on Friday and Saturday

28 May 10, Friday
Qualifications Men - 1600 (Singapore Time)
Qualifications Women - 0130

29 May 10, Saturday
Semi - 0630
Finals - 0130

A Friend's Visit

Met up with Arthur and his fiancee this morning for a climb at Diary Farm. Arthur's my classmate during 2005 Judges Course in Imst, he's currently part of IFSC Rules Commission. The weather has not been kind to our Polish Friends as we were forced to climb under the rain, managed to do four of the driest route for the day. The couple are now heading up to Penang to continue their adventure.













Arthur, myself and Thomasz during the 2005 Judges Course

2012 IFSC World Youth Champsionship

The IFSC Plenary Assembly in Bali has elected Singapore as 2012 World Youth Championship.

2020

IFSC has been granted full recognition by IOC during the recent Plenary Session at Vancouver, Canada. The earliest possible date to see climbing in the Olympics will be 2020 which will be decided in 2013.

Here's an interview with IFSC President Marco Scolaris by Planetmountain.

Tag Team Speed Climb

PA Water‐Venture will be organising the Tag Team Speed Climbing Competition in conjunction with the opening of the new climbing facility at Water‐Venture (Pasir Ris) on 6 & 7 March 2010.

Categories:
Junior Boys, Junior Girls (12yrs old & below) ‐ born on or after 1 Jan 1998
Youth Boys, Youth Girls (16yrs old & below) ‐ born between 1 Jan 1994 and 31 Dec 1997
Men’s Open, Women's Open (17 years old and above) – born on or before 31 Dec 1993
Mixed Open (17 years old and above) – born on or before 31 Dec 1993

Both members of the team must satisfy the criteria for the chosen category. Each team is allowed to take part in one category only

Registration forms are available online at www.Water‐Venture.org.sg.

French Connection

In celebration of LFS 10th International Climbing competition:

Poutre et Power Plate avec l'équipe de France de bloc from Emmanuel Charruau on Vimeo.

LFS 10th International Climbing Competition

Lychee Francais De Singapour (LFS) organised their 10th climbing competition last week. Same place, same catgory with a slight twist to the format. Competitors are tested on the 2 technical disciplines in each round: boulder and difficulty. Their ranking in each discipline are later added to attain the combined ranking.

While the competition may be open to competitors no older than 18 years-old and a start list of no more than 50 competitors, the managment of the competition is something that organisers of difficulty competitions should look upon especially in the area of time management. Pack a comp with too many competitors and back-to-back categories will only take the toll on your officials which is not very helpful in tricky situations.

Congratulations to LFS for organising 10 good years of climbing competitions and i'm sure there will be more to come.

First Ascent On Nat Geo Adventure Airing

There seem to be a difference in timing between the First Ascent trailer running on Nat Geo Adventure and Starhub TV Guide:

14 Jan 10 - 1830
15 Jan 10 - 0030
15 Jan 10 - 0630

Episode 1 see Chris Sharma taking on Jumbo Love (5.15b/9b) at Clark Mountain.

First Ascent On Nat Geo Adventure

First Ascent: The Series will be shown on Nat Geo Adventure on 14 January 9.30pm. Here's a peek on what's in stall for the next six Thursdays.